Chuck Vs The Reassignment
by kroblues
Summary: What happens when Sarah gets reassigned? AU diverging from Chuck Vs The Broken Heart.
1. Reassignments

**A/N:**

This story is an AU which explores what may have happened if Sarah's reassignment had gone through in Chuck Vs the Broken Heart. My first attempt at Fan Fiction so please be gentle.

The first part is a direct quote from Chuck Vs The Broken Heart, but I don't own Chuck. What a shame.

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As Chuck ran into the Home theatre room of the Buy More there wasn't any doubt as to what had happened, the dart sticking out of Awesome's chest and the tranquilizer gun in Forrest's hands being a fairly large clue.

"Woah, have I no rights? You can't just around willy-nilly knocking out my family members" Chuck exclaimed, thankful that Devon was unconscious at this point.

Forrest looked down at Devon's body before she answered flippantly, "Looks like we can".

"Sarah never would have done this, you've gone too far", Chuck said as he reached for his phone.

"Back off Bartowski", said Casey, trying to make the kid see reason. Forrest on the other hand was akin to a school bully, almost taunting Chuck.

"What're you gonna do about it?" she said squaring up to Chuck, as despite his height advantage his file indicated a lack of any combat ability whatsoever. "I'm calling the General, that's what" answered Chuck.

"Is that so?"

"No-one's calling anyone" said Casey

"Listen, this 49-B stuff is over. From now on, the only person I work with is Sarah" said Chuck, beginning to get annoyed with how little respect he appeared to have.

"Walker's gone, she's been dismissed" said Forrest.

"What? What are you talking about?" whispered Chuck, praying he hadn't heard correctly. He knew that Sarah was the only reason he had managed to survive this long, he didn't know how he'd cope without her.

"I'm your new handler" said Forrest, and at that moment Chuck's world seemed to stop. He had to see Sarah before she left, she had to know how he felt, especially if he would never see her again. This was his last chance. As he walked towards the door Casey's voice stopped him.

"Where d'you think you're going Bartowski?"

"Where do you think I'm going, Casey? I'm gonna say goodbye to Sarah. Don't even try to stop me"

"Don't even think about it, you're my asset now and you'll play by my rules. If I have to tranq you then so help me I will," interjected Forrest as she moved to intercept Chuck, but she was stopped by Casey's arm on hers.

"Let him go, these next few weeks are going to be hard enough on him as it is, at least let him get some closure."

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On the drive over, Chuck's head was spinning. Sarah was leaving. His rock in this scary world was just being cast aside because she dared to form an attachment. Hell, even Casey seemed to at least tolerate him, which was more than could be said for most of the other people he came into contact with. Of course, most of the people Casey came into contact with got shot, but Chuck figured he was pretty safe from that at least.

He ran over what he was going to say to her again and again, he wanted this to be perfect, it would probably be his last chance unless by some miracle their paths crossed again, maybe in an elevator in Boston or something else just as unlikely. He was going to make the most of it, and even if she couldn't reciprocate, he wasn't going to die wondering what might have been. Before he knew it he was outside Sarah's hotel door. As he knocked he could barely hear it since his heart was beating so hard in his chest. This was what he had been waiting for, for so long he had wondered what it would be like, but he never expected it would be while Sarah packed to leave him. The irony was that they hadn't even had anything remotely approaching a compromising position since that bomb which wasn't actually a bomb last year, and yet here Sarah was, being shipped off to Jakarta or to quell a revolution in Paraguay with a fork. Was there even a revolution going on in Paraguay? That's not important, but what is, is that Sarah has just opened her door, eyes red from crying and most of a box of tissues piled up next to her bed. Yet despite all that, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"Chuck... What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye."

"But Forrest said that I wasn't to have any further contact with you..."

"It's not like you'll get into more trouble. Besides, Casey seemed to approve. At least, he stopped Forrest from coming after me."

"How did you find out?"

"Well... um... I kinda told Forrest and Casey that I would only work with you and then she sorta blurted it out. What matters is that I'm here and I needed to tell you something before you left"

"What is it?" she asked softly, although she had a pretty good idea of what it would be, and she also had a pretty good idea of what she'd say back.

Chuck's heart rate and breathing rate increased exponentially as he tried to form the words he had wanted to say for months.

"I... I love you Sarah, I know you probably know that and if you can't say it back then I can accept that, I mean, why would a girl like you ever fall in love wi-"

"Shut up Chuck, let me get a word in for once" _Ok, here goes, you've written it down for him, what's the difference between doing that and saying it? _"I love you too, I'm sorry it had to happen in a situation like this, and I wish things were different and I could protect you and love you at the same time, and if I had a choice then I'd stay here, with you, forever. This is the only place which has ever felt like home to me, but I have no choice, you have to accept that. I'm sorry Chuck"

"Will I ever see you again Sarah?"

"As much as I'd like that, probably not. At least as long as you're the Intersect. Even if I quit then I'd still have to avoid your handlers, especially Forrest as she'd be your new cover girlfriend and I don't think she'd be too happy with me screwing up her cover life. What I can promise is that I will find a way to contact you, but Casey can't know. I'd be putting my career and probably my life on the line by doing it, but it'd be worse never hearing from you again."

"How often would that be, I think I'd be able to handle it if I knew that I'd be able to talk to you at least at some point in the near future."

"I'll try to call once a month and before each new assignment. If I don't call for more than 2 months then you'd have to assume the worst had happened. I really wish I could call more often but I'd be undercover, and any more often could compromise my cover."

"Wait, you said that Casey couldn't know. How would I do that if you called me while I was at home or in a bugged area? Does my phone have a bug in it?"

"We'd have to work out a code to keep it secret. As far as your phone goes I have no idea, but Casey's NSA. It's their job to eavesdrop so I assume there would be."

"What do you mean by code? Don't you think it might be a little obvious if I start talking gibberish?"

"Not that sort of code, stupid", she said with a laugh, "I meant that we should come up with a cover story which would allow us to talk fairly freely. It would still have to be vague; I mean you can't exactly talk about the spy stuff if you're meant to be talking to a civilian."

"What about if you were one of my high school friends who I lost touch with but then bumped into on a Nerd Herd install. She could have just been transferred abroad which would give her, I mean, you a chance to call early in the morning if you're on a foreign assignment because of the time difference. I could make it so it's one of the ones who hated Morgan so he wouldn't know if we'd met if Casey asked him, and Bryce wouldn't know them because I never told him about any of my high school friends."

"Impressive Chuck, did you have anybody in mind?"

"Um, how about Zoe Taylor? Morgan knows about her because he had a huge crush on her but I think she filed a restraining order against him. We were best friends when Morgan was living in New York for a year, but when him and his mom came back after the divorce we all pretty much became good friends, until the whole crush thing"

"Best friend or girlfriend?"

"Jealous, Sarah? I never thought I'd see the day" he said as he managed to break through his slightly sombre mood when he realised why they were even having this discussion. "We were just friends really. Sure she was pretty hot, but I never saw her that way. We just hung out and played video games, maybe watched a couple movies. Y'know, friend stuff."

"I wasn't jealous" Sarah pouted.

"Anyway, I remember that once she graduated she started working for a multinational corporation, so I guess it's feasible that she could end up working abroad. We could say that she had to leave her boyfriend behind for this job, so we can "connect" on that level. I assume you'll have to act in cover and not mention any spy stuff too, you never know who's listening."

"Yeah probably, I'll be vague but I'll make sure to let you know of anything important, such as if I find something out which might directly affect you."

"I forgot to ask you, how much time do we have?" he asked, bringing down the light mood which had developed, but he had to know.

"I have to catch a flight tomorrow morning" sniffled Sarah, as her carefully wrought defences began to break.

"Well I think you deserve one night of romance before you start your superspy life again" Chuck said as he leaned in to kiss her, and he almost leapt out of his chair for joy when she met him halfway.

Even though tomorrow would probably be the worst day of his life, for today at least, life was good.


	2. Goodbyes

A/N: This was a hard chapter to write, I've never been that good with sad parts of stories but it has to be done so I can get to the rest of the story.

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The sunlight from the next morning filtered through the curtains, raising the occupants of Sarah's hotel room from an all too short last night together. As they stirred they both tried to keep hold of the moment for as long as possible, but they knew that soon Sarah would be leaving Los Angeles, possibly for good. Typical, thought Chuck, just as I get everything I've ever wanted it get's taken away from me. He tried not to think about what today would bring, as he knew that it would just lead to him breaking down, and he had to be strong, if not for himself then for Sarah. Today would be just as hard for her, perhaps harder as she couldn't say where she'd be going or who she'd be with. Chuck had Ellie and Morgan to help him through it, just as they did after Jill, who did Sarah have? An agency shrink if she was lucky, if not then she'd be forced to carry on as if nothing had happened, with no way to fill the hole in her heart.

They were content just to hold each other as the clock ticked on, but they knew there was no way out of this, Casey would be coming to take her to the airport, probably to make sure she got on the plane. The thing was she wasn't sure if she'd be able to if he wasn't forcing her on. Suddenly she felt the bed shift and her pillow for the night slipped away. She tightened her grip on him as if he were the only thing she had left, and that probably wasn't far from the truth. LA was the only place that had ever felt remotely like home, and Chuck's family felt more like family to her than her father ever had. She couldn't believe she had to leave all this behind for a stupid job! She'd never had these thoughts before, and she wondered what that meant, but before she could muse further upon it she felt Chuck collapse back onto the bed, gripping her just as tightly as she was him. She could barely breathe, but that didn't matter to her.

Chuck was resolved, he had to stay strong for Sarah, but when he had tried to leave the bed and felt Sarah's hands tighten around his waist, that battle was lost and he broke down, collapsing back onto the bed and gripping onto her just as tightly. He never wanted to let go but he knew this couldn't last, which just intensified his tears. He knew she felt the same thing as his chest became damp, but he still couldn't bring himself to extricate himself from her vice-like hold.

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The knock came all too soon for both of them, but neither was inclined to leave each others grasp, at least until Casey's voice reverberated around the room.

"Walker! I know you're in there, and if you and Bartowski are doing _anything_ likely to cause projectile vomiting I may forget my primary standing order where I protect the asset"

"Casey, you threaten me so much it's lost all meaning" said Chuck, trying to lighten the dark mood that came over him and Sarah the moment they heard Casey.

The scene that greeted Casey as he entered the room was one of the saddest he had seen as an agent. Bodies he was used to, you don't get a reputation as a cold school killer by being squeamish at that sight, but what he saw on the bed almost made him break down. So he employed Defence Mechanism #1 for any hard-man; insults.

"Christ Bartowski! Man up and let go of Walker before I-" he stopped suddenly at the look on Chuck's face. Even Casey had to feel some pity at that; it was like kicking a puppy, and even killers have _some_ boundaries.

As Chuck tried to stand up and again felt Sarah's grip tighten, he had to take a moment to compose himself before he felt strong enough to force himself onto unsteady legs, but Sarah still didn't seem inclined to remove herself from him.

What Casey saw next shocked him most of all. He could understand Bartowski's emotional frailty at this point; he was a civilian after all, and they seemed to be affected most of all by "lady feelings". Walker on the other hand was an agent, and yet she seemed to be in worse shape than Bartowski if the way she was holding onto him was any indication. Crap, he thought, maybe Beckman's making a mistake here, a depressed asset we can handle, but Walker'll need to be on top of her game in her next assignment and she doesn't look like she'll be able to function anywhere near that for a while. He wouldn't say anything to Beckman though, it wasn't his place to question orders, but the least he could do was to make this as easy on Bartowski as possible.

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The car ride to the airport was subdued. Chuck and Sarah were still holding each other in the back seat, while Casey kept focused on the road, although he couldn't help but feel sorry for his former partner and current asset.

It was probably a good thing he'd told Forrest to wait in Castle while he took them to the airport, thought Casey, he wasn't sure she'd survive the trip if Walker decided to let go of Bartowski and take out some of the frustration. Come to think of it, Bartowski could end up being a problem if he decides to be uncooperative, which something tells me he will. Guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

In the airport wasn't much better, as Chuck and Sarah were still clinging to each other, but both knew that it was all going to end soon, and only the thought that they would still be able to talk to each other, even only once a month, was still enough to keep them both from collapsing and breaking down on the spot. Not that it was going to be easy to let go of each other once and for all.

Sarah's CIA badge managed to at least keep them together for a bit longer, but soon, too soon from their perspective, there was a boarding call from Sarah's flight. Chuck knew it was his last chance and he had to say something.

"I'll never forget you Sarah, even if it takes a year or a decade I'll be waiting for you, I love you and nobody else will ever replace you" he said as tears began their well rehearsed journey once more.

"Chuck, I'm sorry it has to end like this, I promise I'm coming back, I just don't know when. I love you too but I have to go."

One kiss. That was all they had time for before Sarah Walker, the best thing that had ever happened to him, walked out of his life. He didn't know how he was going to cope but he had to carry on.

As Sarah walked towards the gate she kept herself focused on looking forwards, not even trying to control her tears, as she knew that if she looked back it would all be over and she would never leave him. That would be the worst thing for both of them. If she didn't leave now Chuck would be in a bunker and she'd be in prison if she was lucky, and anything was better than making Chuck leave his family forever, she could only do that to him if she knew it was the only way to keep him alive, and even then it would be a struggle.

The walk seemed to take ages, but eventually she was on the plane and it hit her. She was leaving the only man she could ever love, and he was going to be in more danger than ever. The tears came more fiercely than ever. She started rocking backward and forwards in her seat as the other passengers tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. She tried to speak, but nothing intelligible would come out. She nearly broke there and then and was about to get off the plane to run to Chuck, but as her hands moved to the seatbelt she could feel the plane begin moving. There went her last chance; she just had to hope he could last long enough for her to be able to return. At least she would be able to call him, to hear his voice in just a month. In that moment she knew she had to get through her next mission so she could talk to Chuck again.

Chuck watched her go until he couldn't see her any more, then he watched the plane as it took off, and he wondered how it was affecting her. The next thing he knew Casey was helping him up, and he was vaguely aware of concerned looks all around him. _How the hell did I end up on the floor?_ He asked himself, but it didn't matter. Sarah was gone. That was the only thought that was registering as Casey half walked, half carried him to the car.

"Listen Bartowski, I know it's going to be hard for you, but you have to do this for Walker, I know she's going to be pissed if you end up dying before she sees you again" said Casey, becoming oddly caring for such a tough guy.

"But Sarah said she couldn't come back..." said Chuck, trying to make Casey believe that he had accepted there would be no more contact or it would give him a reason to look deeper once Sarah did call.

"Nice try Bartowski, I know Walker's going to try and see you again. The only way I'll stop it is if you're still in danger from Fulcrum, and she's going to have a ton of other enemies on her from her new assignments. So if she in any way jeopardizes my assignment I _will _tell Beckman. That includes calls by the way before you get any ideas, she'll have got rid of any personal artefacts from this mission before she left."

"I hope Beckman knows what she's doing by getting rid of Sarah, she's the only reason I've made it this long. Do you honestly think I'd have been able to jump off the Buy More if Banacek had you or Roan hostage? Or that I'd be able to do anything else in Spy World with just your insults. She gave me belief, and considering Forrest just seems to be a more masculine version of you, Casey, I don't think our team is going to have such good results. Stick that in your next report."

"I hope Beckman knows what she's doing too, Bartowski" said Casey.

The rest of the ride back to Casa Bartowski was completed in silence as Chuck tried to remember happier times with Sarah in his life.


	3. Problems

A/N:

Into the main part of the story now, how will Chuck hold things together without Sarah?

Big thanks to Yokaputo for the beta/discussion about elements of this chapter.

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One month. One month since Sarah had gone, one month since Chuck had felt whole, and he didn't feel like he was getting any better. Casey had been surprisingly compassionate when it came to the spy stuff, which was lucky as he hadn't flashed in a month either. Forrest on the other hand wasn't nearly as caring, which he expected, but he couldn't shake the feelings of hate that welled up in him when he saw her, especially in the Orange Orange uniform. That was Sarah's and he didn't like the idea of anybody else wearing it.

Casey had at least managed to persuade Forrest to lay off starting up a cover relationship for a month, and managed to get the General to give him a month's 'vacation' to sort things out, but now that was over and Forrest would be coming in any time soon to ask him out. Time to make her job a little more unbearable, he thought.

"Excuse me, sir. Can you help me with my phone, it doesn't seem to be able to turn on," said Forrest.

"Real original, Forrest," said Chuck, not looking up from the phone he was already working on, "I am not interested in any relationship with you, cover or otherwise, so just leave before I set you up with Jeff."

"Listen, I agreed with Casey when he said to give you a little time to recover, but now you're my asset and you'll follow my rules. So, care to give that another try?"

"Not really," said Chuck, as he got up from the desk and walked off, just as Morgan approached the desk and saw Forrest.

"Hey, aren't you that stripper from Awesome's bachelor party?" He asked, showing his usual lack of subtlety. This caused a stifled snort from Casey's direction which in turn earned Casey a look from Forrest that could have killed him several times over. Not willing to dignify Morgan with a response, she simply glared at him and walked out of the store.

Chuck was walking towards the break room feeling pretty pleased with himself. He knew there would be consequences eventually, but it was nice to make Forrest's job a little more difficult. It was the best way to repay her for what she had done, and it gave him an odd sense of satisfaction knowing that he was getting her more and more mad as the days went on.

Casey watched the exchange from a short distance away, and after a cheap laugh at his new partner's expense he decided to get an explanation from Chuck, who he had seen going towards the employees only section of the Buy More. Perfect. No witnesses around while he caused a small amount of non-Intersect threatening damage.

"Care to explain what that was about Bartowski?" He said as he pushed Chuck up against the wall.

"I have a few reasons. Firstly, if Forrest thinks she'll be able to replace Sarah then I'm going to make her job as much hell as I can. Secondly, it took me 5 years to get over Jill, how do you think it would look if I managed to get over Sarah in a month? And even if we did start a cover relationship, how do you think I'd be able to pull off wanting to spend time with her? I'm not an agent, I can't just turn off my emotions and pretend to like someone I actually hate, so if we have to pretend to be dating I'd probably end up being down one handler before too long."

"Calm down, Bartowski, I gave you a month to try and get at least partially over Walker and become a functioning member of the team. I can't stall anymore so you're going to have to suck it up and deal with it."

"Not gonna happen Casey. The way I figure it, you need me rather than the other way round, so I reckon I should have some choice in relationships, especially considering your boss managed to take away the only person who kept me going this long. You gonna tell her that or wait until it's too late like you did when Sarah got reassigned?"

"Listen, the only thing keeping your neck in one piece at the moment is those secrets in your head and my assignment to protect you. Remember that and you might survive once they're out."

"Fine, I apologise, Casey, but don't expect me to be happy about spending any time with Forrest, and there won't be any relationship with her outside of missions, you superspies should be able to find a way around that no problem."

With that, Chuck turned around and completed his interrupted journey to the break room, and he wondered just what effect his little rant might have on his wish to continue a fairly normal life.

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"You mean to tell me that the asset _refused_ to cooperate, and you just accepted that, Major Casey?" Beckman was livid with Chuck's insubordination and was taking it out on the unfortunate handlers of the world's most important national security asset.

"That's correct ma'am" replied Casey.

"And would you please elaborate on why you decided on that course of action?"

"The asset still seems to have a connection with me. It is my belief that if I were to force him to begin a cover relationship with Agent Forrest, then he would also become less controllable by me."

"Well you don't seem to be doing a very good job of that at the moment Major!"

"No ma'am, I accept that there are some issues with the asset's cooperation at this time."

"We haven't had this cooperation issue in the past, what is your opinion on what may have caused it Major?"

"The asset still has a strong connection to Agent Walker ma'am; he is obviously still in love with her and resents Agent Forrest for, in his words, 'thinking she can replace Sarah'. There may be some issues with the functionality of the team until we can resolve this issue."

"Agent Forrest, what is your assessment of the asset's mental state?"

"I would have to agree with Major Casey ma'am; the asset seems to have a reluctance to begin contact with me and maintain it for any amount of time. I am concerned as to how he may react on missions, although his file seemed to indicate a higher than normal aptitude for fieldwork than is usually seen in these types of asset."

"I think your concerns are appropriate, Agent Forrest, but there is no way of telling how the asset may react in the field until he is tested. Normally we would simply place the asset in protective custody in these situations, but the effectiveness of Team Intersect in the field is too much to throw away. We'll monitor the situation over time and we would appreciate both of your inputs in the continuing mental state of the asset, especially you Major Casey, as you have prior knowledge of how the team performed. If there's nothing else.... this briefing is over."

As Forrest went to the armoury Casey decided to catch up on some of the surveillance footage of previous nights, and he could only hope that Bartowski pulled it together enough to justify his continued existence in the field. He could probably only stall for a couple more months at most before he had to explain the lack of flashes.

Hopefully he wouldn't have to wait too long before the next mission.


	4. Missions

A/N:

The italicised part at the start is a flashback, just to avoid any confusion. Thanks to Yokaputo for the great beta and advice on this chapter  
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_Sarah got off what was probably the worst plane journey in her life, leaving Chuck and everything she had always wanted behind, for what? A new assignment with a new partner? When she entered the airport concourse she saw that she was at least half right._

"_Oh no, not you" she muttered under her breath as she saw the dark hair and slightly cocky stance of her former partner and ex-boyfriend. Bryce freaking Larkin! Of all the agents in the entire Agency they had to partner me up with that one, she raged internally, but showed no outwards sign of her anger, except for the fire which was erupting behind her eyes. If Bryce had noticed that it would have been safer for him to run there and then, but his focus was on the cute brunette just in front of Sarah, so he didn't see the fury until she was upon him._

"_Hey, Sarah" he said, but quailed as he looked into her eyes and saw the hatred within. "Uh... what's wrong?"_

"_I think you know perfectly well what's wrong, you bastard! I had to leave the only person I've ever truly loved and the only place I've ever felt happy, and you have the nerve to ask me what's wrong?!"_

_"Calm down, Sarah, it was only a question" said Bryce, but then something Sarah had said hit him; "since when do you love Chuck? At least, I assume you meant Chuck."_

"_OF COURSE I MEANT CHUCK!" She shouted in a voice so loud heads all over the terminal turned to look. Taking a deep breath to quell some of the fire, she said in a quieter, but altogether more threatening voice, "if you know what's good for you, you won't even think of making a move on me. I know how you think Bryce, and let me tell you, if you attempt to make our relationship anything more than professional, then I will be the last woman you have the equipment to make a move on. Got it?"_

"_Yes ma'am" he said, obviously slightly scared by the ice which dripped from each word of Sarah's._

"_Good, now let's go. You can brief me on your assignment on the way to the hotel, and for your sake we better have separate rooms."_

"_Of course we do, you don't think I'd be that presumptuous do you?" He said as he hurried off to make a phone call to the hotel where they would be staying._

_------------------------------------_

That was a month ago now, and Bryce still seemed as scared of her even now as he was in the car ride to the hotel. He generally just tried to stay out of her way, which was a good policy for the first few days, but now her anger towards him had more or less dissipated being replaced by an almost constant ache in the left side of her chest. She wondered if Chuck thought about her as much as she thought about him, which was almost constantly whenever she and Bryce weren't planning a way to infiltrate one of Fulcrum's major cells operating on the East Coast. Just before she arrived Bryce had heard of a major plan to steal some intelligence from an NSA substation that could have huge implications for the future of Fulcrum. They hadn't heard any further details, but they knew that they had to attempt to infiltrate the cell to try and take them down. The takedown would be easier if they were part of the cell for long enough to earn a move to another cell after this takedown. This would make things much easier to learn about their organization and save another infiltration from having to be planned. While she was going over the plans in her head something else came to mind. It had been a month since she had left. That meant that she could follow through on her promise to call Chuck! She quickly reached for her new phone, but something stopped her from dialling him. What if he didn't want to talk to her? What if he didn't truly care about her? She could be risking her entire career here, and Sarah felt that she needed to be sure that this call was worth it. Then she realised just how stupid she was being. Of course Chuck cared for her, that last morning proved that, and if Chuck wasn't worth a risk or two, who was?

So it was that with trembling fingers, she dialled the number that had been imprinted into her memory for months and waited for her Chuck to pick up.

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"Sarah!"

Chuck sat up quickly in his bed and he could feel the sweat pouring off him. He'd had that nightmare again just as he had every night for the past week. Sarah had come back to him, but as she ran to him Forrest appeared behind her and gunned her down. There was probably a hidden meaning somewhere in that, but it simply gave him another reason to hate Forrest though this one probably wasn't as deserved as the rest. His attention was drawn back to the reason he had awoken; his phone was currently ringing on the night stand. He checked the caller ID: Unknown Number. He found this a little strange but decided to answer it anyway, and found his reward almost immediately.

"Hello?" he asked groggily

"Chuck! It's Sarah"

With that he sat up so fast he was surprised damage wasn't done to his head. That would piss Casey off more than most things, and in his happiness to hear Sarah's voice on the other end of the phone he almost forgot the code he had agreed with her before she'd left. He managed to bite back her name before he blurted it out, which would have killed their plans before they had begun.

"Hey...Zoe... good to talk to you again. It's been a while. What's going on?"

"It's good to talk to you too, Chuck. I really miss you."

"Yeah, I miss my girlfriend too. How's your boyfriend taking it?"

"Hopefully he's not doing too badly" said Sarah with a laugh, "but I have something to tell you, just don't freak out."

"What is it?"

"I'm working with Bryce again. Don't worry, he's been too scared to try anything, but I thought I should probably tell you before someone else did."

"Your boss actually paired you up with your ex-boyfriend? That seems a little bit disrespectful to your current boyfriend don't you think?"

"You know as well as I do by now that they don't care about that. How are things going back in LA?"

"It hasn't been that bad. Everyone's been really understanding about the fact that I needed a bit of time to get somewhat over Sarah not being here. I did actually get asked out by some girl, and I use the term loosely, who works at the Orange Orange across from the Buy More."

"Really, I wouldn't think Forrest was your type."

Chuck could almost hear her smirk from over the phone, but he pressed on anyway. "I turned her down as a matter of fact, I don't think I could handle going over there every day. She seems to like Casey more anyway. I might see if I can set her up with him, nobody needs a girlfriend more than him." He accompanied this with a smirk aimed towards the camera mounted in his bedroom wall, nothing like baiting Casey to get a bit of enjoyment from the day, he thought.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Chuck? I don't think Beckman would be too happy with you being that uncooperative."

"I just don't like her, and as I still love Sarah I don't think I could even think about dating somebody else."

"I love you too Chuck, but be careful. I'm not going to be able to come back and see you if you're in a bunker am I?"

"Yeah, I don't suppose there'd be any chance of you coming to visit next time you're in the area is there? I know you're working abroad, but they can't keep you there forever can they?"

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea Chuck, I'm really sorry but it's too much of a risk for me to be seen in LA considering the circumstances around my reassignment. I've been specifically ordered not to go anywhere near LA for the foreseeable future but the first chance I get I'll be there, trust me on that one."

"As much as I hate to cut this short, I have to be at work in a couple of hours, and I'm sure you have something more important to do with your time than talking with a depressed Nerd Herder. I hope you know how grateful I am to you for helping me through this."

"You're helping me through it too Chuck, don't forget that. Just remember that no matter how bad things get I love you and I will come back to you eventually. I'll call you again in about a month, I love you Chuck."

"Me too, Zoe, just call whenever you can" said Chuck as he ended the call and went back to sleep with a smile on his face.

The nightmare didn't happen again that night.

-----------------------------

The next morning came and Chuck was in an understandably cheerful mood, which Casey quickly picked up on as he met him in the courtyard while they were going to work.

"You seem in a better mood today Bartowski" said Casey, leading up to the real reason he wanted information; an unexpected phone call he had picked up on the idiot's surveillance. It was probably nothing but it was better to be sure, he had a feeling Walker might try to contact him and his instincts were rarely wrong.

"Yeah, I got to talk to someone who's going through what I am, just from the other side of it. It let me talk some stuff out and get a few issues off my chest" Chuck said, not seeing any point in denying the phone call as Casey had probably already looked over last night's surveillance footage.

"Mind elaborating on who you were talking to?"

"If you must know, which I suppose you do, it was Zoe. She was one of my best friends in high school and we ran into each other a couple of weeks ago. She recently got transferred abroad for her job and had to leave her boyfriend behind, I told her about Sarah leaving and she thought it might be a good idea for us to talk together, maybe get some stuff of our chest's that we can't talk to our partners about."

"Good to know you have someone to talk to, Bartowski" said Casey, "maybe it'll keep you off my back and transform you into a halfway functioning asset again. Who knows, maybe you might even flash and I won't have to cover your ass with the General again."

"Y'know, Casey, I've never properly thanked you for saving my life and keeping me out of the bunker for the past couple of years"

"Keep it that way, Bartowski. I'm just doing my job. It's in my best interests to keep you out of the bunker and as soon as it's in my best interests to shoot you don't think I won't"

"Nice try, Casey, I know you care about me really, even if you don't show it."

A growl from Casey prompted Chuck to shut up for the rest of the trip before Casey violated Standing Mission Objective #1.

---------------------------

It was just another boring day at the Buy More for Chuck. His mood was still high enough from Sarah's call that even Morgan noticed and came over to talk to him about it.

"Hey buddy, what's got you in such a good mood?" He asked

"Oh, I got a call from Zoe last night and it really helped me talk about a few things."

"Zoe? Which Zoe are we talking about here?"

"Taylor, you know, from high school?"

"Reeallly, reckon she might want to meet up, reminisce about old times?"

"3 things Morgan. 1) Anna will kill you. 2) She's working abroad at the moment and 3) she hates you and currently has a restraining order out on you. Enough reasons or do I need to go further?"

"No, no that's probably enough."

Just as Morgan walked off he noticed an orange tank top moving towards him, and wearing it was someone who had probably overtaken Bryce for his 'most hated person' slot. Something told him she wasn't happy either, and he had a sneaking feeling that the cause was probably him.

"Listen, you are my asset and you will follow my orders," she began. _Yep, definitely him_. "I don't care how much you might dislike me, in fact that probably makes things easier, but we _will_ be beginning a cover relationship, got that?"

"Maybe I wasn't clear enough the last time you tried this. I-am-not-starting-a-cover-relationship-with-you. Now do I have to call Jeff or are you going to give this up?"

"I have orders from General Beckman and I will follow them. Those orders are for us to begin cover dating, so that is what we'll do."

"See, dating, cover or otherwise, implies both parties are acting somewhat willingly. Therefore what you will be doing if you maintain this is commonly referred to as 'stalking'. You know what? Come to think of it, Jeff might be a good match for you. Jeff! Get yourself over here."

"Ugh, you are going to pay for that Bartowski. I'm going to complete this assignment if it kills me, so you might as well cooperate before your ass finds itself in a bunker."

"Not happening, tell Beckman I'm not starting a relationship with you under any circumstances. I'll cooperate with everything else, but that's too far."

"Cute. You're actually acting as though you have a choice."

"I reckon I do. You need me, not the other way around. Now don't you have yoghurt to serve?"

With that rebuttal she turned and walked out of the store, jostling a customer who was currently being helped by one of the numerous green shirts. The impact caused him to turn around and lock eyes with Chuck for just a moment, but it was enough to set off a flash. He wasn't particularly used to them after his month of inactivity, so the headache was bad enough, but what he wasn't expecting was for one of the images in his flash to be of Sarah in her Orange Orange uniform. It didn't seem like it should have been there though, and he thought he had seen something behind the image of Sarah, almost as if it had been superimposed upon the original photo. He decided to run back the flash again to check it out, and sure enough there was what looked like a receipt for a shipment to a specific address, which just happened to be partially obscured by one of Sarah's shoulders. _Oohh this was gonna suck_, he thought. How was he going to explain this one away?

Casey had noticed the flash, and after silently thanking whatever deity happened to be listening at the time went to fetch his annoying yet surprisingly competent asset.

"I saw that flash Bartowski, let's reacquaint you with Castle, time to go."

"Not happening Casey, I'm not going anywhere near the Orange Orange while _she_'s working there"

"You're acting like you have a choice again Bartowski, not a good trait for an asset to have. Now come with me before I have to do some damage!"

"Fine, fine, but we're going through the break room. I have no reason to go over to the Orange Orange, nor do I have any desire to do so, so can we just get this over with?"

---------------

Casey had called ahead to let Forrest know that the asset had finally done something useful and to tell her to get the General online ASAP. As the two men appeared through the Buy More entrance both Forrest and the General were already waiting for them. Their choice of entrance caused two strange looks from those already present, which led Casey to explain the asset's concerns over the cover reason to go through the Orange Orange, conveniently leaving out the part about his lack of desire to do it. Beckman unfortunately picked up on a part of Casey's statement which gave her cause for concern.

"Agent Forrest, if what Major Casey is saying is true, then those 'cover reasons' seem to suggest you have once again failed to begin a cover relationship with the asset. Is this the case?"

"Uh, guys, I'd prefer not to be called the asset if it's all the same to you" piped up Chuck.

"Quiet Bartowski, now's not the time," said Casey quietly, trying to avoid Chuck being bunkerised just because he pissed the General off too much. Little did he know that was one of the main reasons Chuck had begun sitting nearest to the armoury, as it gave him an advantage if the order did come in; he could get to the tranquilizer guns first.

"Yes general, this is the case. The asset (Hey! Ow! Dammit Casey!) once again refused to date me. I recommend an alternate route around this cooperation problem to avoid wasting time in setting up an effective protection detail."

"Please don't be a bunker, please don't be a bunker" muttered Chuck while the general considered this proposal.

"Good idea, Agent Forrest. While the asset appears to be being unusually difficult about this, he doesn't look like changing his mind anytime soon. Therefore you will begin a cover relationship with Major Casey as soon as is feasible." A choked back snort came from Chuck at this order; he had seen the eyes the two of them had been making at each other during the 49-B mission. It would be nice for them to be on the other end of trying to keep a cover professional but also believable. His uncontrollable outburst earned him another clip to the back of the head from Casey, who appeared to be turning roughly the colour of a beetroot.

"Now we have that business out of the way, would you care to explain more about your flash Mr. Bartowski?"

"Yes general, the man I flashed on was a Fulcrum agent codenamed 'Yokaputo'. He is fairly high ranking in their organisation and the intersect intelligence indicated he may be the head of a sleeper cell within the Los Angeles area." _Please don't ask about the address, anything else except for the address._

"Did your flash indicate any possible address or residence for this agent?"

_Crap!_

"Uhm, I did flash on the address, but I could only get a partial address as the rest of it was obscured."

"Obscured by what, Mr Bartowski?"

"Uhh, well, I'm not sure how to say this, it's a little bit awkwa-"

"Spill it Bartowski!" said Casey, with another added piece of violence.

"Well the picture the intersect provided had another image superimposed over the top of it. I could still make out the original but the address was obscured."

"And this image was...."

"It was Sarah, general." That obviously wasn't the right thing to say if the way the general appeared to be inflating was any indication.

"What the hell do you mean, it was Sarah?! Was Agent Walker involved in any way or was this just a result of your stupid crush on her which I should have put a stop to much earlier?"

At this Chuck began to get angry. His relationship with Sarah was by no means conventional, he could accept that, but what he couldn't accept was anybody, not even the general, belittling what they did have.

"It was not a crush! We were in love, and if you had managed to see past your protocols for one second you would have seen how effective that made her at protecting me! She wasn't involved in any way, she was just superimposed over the proper flash image."

"Okay Mr. Bartowski, I accept that she may have been effective at protecting you, but every piece of information we have indicates that an uncompromised agent will outperform a compromised agent in almost every way. In my opinion her effectiveness was despite her feelings, instead of because of them, it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. Now this matter is over, and we have a mission to discuss.

Major Casey, Agent Forrest, you will proceed to the address which matches the information given to us by the intersect. Our intel indicates that this may be a major Fulcrum site, so take the intersect along to aid you in identifying the other agents."

"No way General! I accepted that you took Sarah away, I'll even report my flashes to you, but you can't expect me to want to cooperate on missions with you. I refuse, I won't do it and if you try and stop me..." his rant was cut short by the high pitched pop of a tranquilizer gun and he looked down to see a dart protruding from his arm

"-the hell?" he said woozily before collapsing onto the table.

"Nicely done Major, make sure you secure him to the vehicle to ensure his compliance," said Beckman, "now, shall we continue the briefing without any more"-she looked at Chuck-"interruptions?"

---------------------

"Uhh, Casey? Care to explain just why I am handcuffed to the surveillance equipment?"

"We needed to make sure you could come along with us and view the monitors. Despite how useless you are, that supercomputer is kind of important and we'd like its help."

"Isn't there an easier way to get me to stay in the car? A spray bottle or something?"

"Me and Walker tried pretty much everything. Hell, I even tried to persuade her to seduce you to control you, but she didn't want to 'betray your trust' or some such bull."

"Good to hear, Casey. Now are you going to let me out? I'll be good."

"Yeah that's likely. How often do you stay in the car?"

"Well I usually had two handlers I actually cared about, now it's down to one so that's one less person I want to try and save, ergo less chance of me exiting the vehicle."

"No dice Bartowski, the handcuffs are staying."

"Fine, but don't come crawling back when you need me to save your ass, _again_."

"Won't be happening," said Casey as he slammed the van door shut.

_Oh joy _thought Chuck, _more time in the van. Casey should stay in the van for once, maybe that'd stop him from- wait, that can't be good._

"Casey, bad guy at your six!"

Casey turned in the appropriate direction and squeezed off a couple of suppressed shots, taking his target down before he even had a chance to turn.

"Woo! Score one for Team Bartasey!" Chuck shouted in the van

"Say that again and they'll be your last words Bartowski, now concentrate on the monitors," Casey was in his usual surly mood, but he sounded slightly happier now he had finally gotten some gunplay. Chuck noticed another shadowy figure moving behind Forrest, but instead of immediately shouting a warning like he had with Casey, his mind was filled with conflict.

_Should I let Forrest die? Maybe then Sarah could come back. It'd show Beckman how much this team needs her at least, but I can't just let her die or get captured! No matter how bad a handler she is, nobody deserves that. Ok maybe Beckman, but nobody else. Now tell her Bartowski!_

Shaking off how much that last part sounded like Casey, he opened the comm link to Forrest's mic, but before he could shout a warning 2 more shots came from Casey's weapon and the agent shadowing Forrest slumped to the ground.

The rest of the mission went pretty much according to plan. There was a slightly awkward moment when Chuck tried to get out of the van and was restrained by his cuffs, which caused him to fall over. Of course Casey's link had to be on at that point and he'd heard the crash. He hadn't stopped ribbing Chuck about it in the van on the ride back. Now that they were in the Castle however, he just looked pissed at Chuck.

"Want to tell us why you didn't warn Forrest about that agent sneaking up behind her?"

"Wait, he knew about that? I'll kill him!" shouted Forrest

"Calm down Forrest, I've had to struggle with this issue a few times now, the easiest thing to do is-"

"Hang on Casey, when have I ever not warned you or Sarah about someone trying to kill you?"

"I was talking about the issue of wanting to kill _you_, Bartowski. You're kind of a tempting target. Now, as I was saying, the best way to deal with it is to remember your standing orders. If you're anything like me..."

"Which you are"

"Shut up Bartowski! See what I mean? Tempting target. Anyway, if you're anything like me it helps to remember your orders. Keeps away any temptations to reach for your pistol and paint the walls with Bartowski."

_Paint the walls?_ Thought Chuck, _what the hell does that mean?_

-------------------------

**A/N: See if you catch the intentional shout outs I put into this chapter**


	5. Infiltrations

**A/N: Still don't own Chuck, not likely to ever own it. Ah well, I'll make do with my Xbox and Rainbow Six. Thanks to Yokaputo again for the beta and comments.**

**-------------------**

A month had passed since Sarah's phone call to Chuck so she was once again looking forward to talking to him again. It probably wasn't healthy for an Agent to have such a strong dependency on someone else, but she was in too deep to do anything about that now. First though, she and Bryce had to assist Fulcrum on what was apparently an unimportant mission tonight. They'd decided to go for a long infiltration, enlisting the help of General Beckman to make it look like Sarah along with her new partner Bruce Sparrow, Bryce's alias, were in a position to defect. They had gone to Beckman because they needed somebody they knew wasn't Fulcrum; if she was then Chuck wouldn't have lasted a week after Graham's death.

That had been two weeks ago, and they had since persuaded their cell leader, codename 'Yokaputo', who had only a month ago barely evaded capture by a trio of NSA Agents while on a recon mission in LA, to "recruit" them into Fulcrum. He had started off by giving them small courier type assignments, but now that had developed into information gathering. They were to sneak into an NSA sub-station in New York tonight to find a list of analysts stationed at Ft. Meade with a G-6 Clearance or higher. Simple in theory, in reality very difficult to pull off. That was why the entire cell was being committed to this operation, including the leader. Sarah considered the possibility that there was a more important objective she Bryce weren't yet privy to, but there wasn't any other option. If it did turn out that way, they'd probably have to just wing it and hope there was for the best. She packed a couple more clips and added another set of knives to the belt around her waist. There probably wasn't going to be much of a chance for her to use them if it was close proximity fighting, but it was a comfort thing, just like Bryce preferred to wear green contact lenses before a mission. He didn't even wear glasses, it was just a superstition, plus he thought it added to his appeal. Sarah, on the other hand, thought he was lucky to still be alive after he made that quip to her last week; her mood still hadn't improved much when it came to Bryce, but at least passing wildlife was safe now. That was her last cheerful thought before she went into what Chuck had called her 'super-spy-mission-mode'. Wait, that was her last cheerful thought: Chuck's face smiling back at her when she told him she loved him. It was a memory which had gotten her through some tough moments in the past couple of months, but it was now locked away in the storage vault of her mind as she let Agent Walker take over.

There were to be five teams moving in on the sub-station simultaneously from different areas. Sarah and Bryce were to infiltrate the southeast corner, which meant that they should be the first team there according to the blueprints that Yokaputo had "acquired" previously. Maybe they could even figure out a way to help out their real employers while they were waiting for the rest of their guys. The way out of the sub-station, however, would be much more difficult as they were likely to set off alarms once they "procured" the intel. Sarah had mixed feelings about how they would get out. On the one hand she was hoping there were enough double agents in place to allow easier exfiltration, but it would be pretty sad to see just how far Fulcrum had penetrated the organisation she had once loved.

She pulled up in her rented Volkswagen, a step down from her Porsche to be sure, but she had left that car in storage in LA as a way to commit to going back at least once. Bryce quickly exited the vehicle and made his way under the cover of darkness in his grey mission suit to the wall 25 yards from the perimeter fence. He was wearing grey as some analyst at Langley had figured out the black suits were actually darker than the night, so now the Agency issue suits were a sort of dark grey/green. They hadn't counted on streetlights though, which made them look a little ridiculous, or rather made Bryce look ridiculous. Sarah managed to carry it off rather well unsurprisingly, and decided to just walk over to where Bryce was crouched.

"Bryce, what the hell are you doing?" she hissed at him, "We're meant to _not_ be suspicious, and here you are looking like some agent just off the Farm, what happened to you?"

"Getting shot sort of knocks your confidence Sarah, especially when you spend 6 months dead because of it, so if you don't mind I'd like to be a little careful."

"Fine, let's just get going, and act like an agent."

"You're one to talk..." he began before he realised who he was talking to and trailed off before she caused major damage to Little Bryce.

They made it up to the gates in silence, as they both realised the requirement to be covert in this mission, and particularly sneaking past fellow agents, which would be a large test of their skills. Bryce used his PDA to hack into the security system and placed a loop of the minutes before they had arrived on the cameras. Now to take care of the actual guards. They could see the entrance to the facility just ahead of them due to a rather convenient sign saying "Entrance" above the door. Must not be a very high level facility, thought Sarah, but then why would they keep such classified intel here?

She pressed on however, she had completed many missions in the past where the target hadn't been what it had first seemed, and even Chuck had initially been a suspected rogue agent. Boy was that a misconception!

She utilised the newest piece of equipment she had been equipped with, a fibre-optic cable with a camera at one end and a handheld display screen at the other. She fed it under the door while Bryce waited in the shadows and watched for signs of 'enemy' activity. Good. No guards watching the door, as they seemed to be engaged in a card game to the left of the door. They could probably sneak past them if they were careful since the guards were only paying attention to the security feeds that Bryce had already tapped. Sarah readied a tranquilizer dart clip in her gun just to be sure, and jimmied the lock carefully open. Just as she suspected the guards hadn't noticed her incursion, and she motioned for Bryce to follow her as she made her way to the corner of the wall where she was out of view of the guard station. Bryce seemed to want to make up for his error at the start of the mission, and was being extra careful not to be seen, as he shut the door carefully behind him while leaving a small stone to keep it from fully latching shut, which should give them a quick exit if required.

They made it to the room that according to Yok contained the objective without encountering much resistance or setting off any alarms. However, just to be safe Sarah and Bryce were careful about opening the door. She was a little wary about the lack of resistance, so she cocked her gun and motioned for Bryce to do the same, though he already had. She opened the door and burst in, using her Delta-Force/CIA joint training in room clearing to good effect, but it was unnecessary as it was simply a room full of slightly dusty filing cabinets and computer terminals.

"You sure we got the right room?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, I checked the blueprints as we were moving through the facility, this is definitely it."

Just then they heard movement behind them and the door burst open to reveal Yokaputo and his second in command, Jayne. Stupid name for a man, Sarah had thought when she first heard it, but it sometimes confused adversaries enough to allow him to get a split second advantage, and for a man as deadly as him, that was all he needed.

"Good to see at least one of our teams made it through, we heard Smith's team meet some heavy resistance on the way in, so they're probably gone. Andrews' team are heading through the ventilation sys.." he was interrupted by a crack from above them followed by a falling shape from the vent above them.

"Aahh!"-thud-"Dammit that hurts"

"Nice of you to...drop in... Andrews" said Yokaputo, never one to resist a cliché pun, "Where is Johnson?"

"Up here sir!" came a disembodied voice which was quickly followed by another falling body that flattened Andrews as he tried to get up. Sarah had to fight back a laugh at the ineptness of some Fulcrum agents, just how were they winning this espionage war?

"Jesus Christ guys, they're dumb, not deaf!" said Yok, which reminded Sarah of a certain NSA agent back in Los Angeles. What she wouldn't give to go back there just once.

"Err, sorry sir. Where's that list of analysts then?"

"Actually we're not here for a list of analysts. Do you really think the NSA would have such as high security prescence for those files? No, we're here because intel suggests this is the location with information on the covers of the human Intersect's handlers. We're looking for a folder marked 'Joint Operations'. Get looking people!"

Sarah's heart almost stopped when she heard the real purpose for the raid. She couldn't let Chuck's cover be compromised! That would destroy even the small hope she had of seeing him again as he'd be in some facility in Utah within a week if she let Fulcrum complete this mission. She met Bryce's eyes and let him know exactly what she was thinking, while at the same time reaching for two of her knives. With a flick of each wrist she downed Andrews and Johnson, while Bryce fired off a couple of shots towards Yokaputo and Jayne before diving behind the nearest cabinet.

Sarah was stuck in the open with the nearest cover quite a ways away from her, so she reached for her gun and prayed luck was on her side. It was then that Jayne popped his head out from behind the cover looking for Bryce. The shot hit Jayne causing his head to explode like a watermelon and he dropped back behind the terminals, leaving just Yokaputo against two angry CIA agents. Okay, one angry agent and another who was trying to stay out of her way at any cost, but Yokaputo was still a dangerous customer even when cornered. Sarah snuck around to the corner of the cabinet he was hiding behind, and squeezed off a couple of blind shots; hearing one of them hit a fleshy target. She peered out from behind the cabinet and saw Yokaputo slumped on the floor, a gun still in his hand with his index finger on the trigger. She thought he was dead, but couldn't be sure and paid for it when his arm suddenly rose off the floor and pulled the trigger.

Pain exploded throughout her as the bullet ripped into her shoulder, just above the protection of her vest. Luckily it was her left arm so she could raise her gun and finish the Fulcrum agent off, but he had disappeared in the time it had taken for her to recover from the shot. Where was Bryce? She wondered, as her body into shock and she collapsed to the ground. She faintly heard quick footfalls approaching the door and through blurred vision saw Bryce enter with a team of NSA medics. As she lost consciousness her last thought was of Chuck and she wondered whether she would see his smile one last time.

---------------------


	6. Suspicions

**A/N: Sorry about ending the last chapter like that. I wouldn't kill Sarah though, I'm not that evil**

**Thanks to SM93STARBUCK for the help with a small time zone issue I had later in the chapter and for the beta.**

**--------------------------**

Sarah cracked open her eyes and took in her unfamiliar surroundings. She'd had the strangest dream; a 49-B had been called for and she'd been taken away from Chuck, but she had risked her career and kept in contact with him. Then she'd been working with Bryce trying to take down a Fulcrum cell, and they were on a mission to steal some intelligence from an NSA facility. The details were fuzzy, but she vaguely remembered that the Intel had been important and had made the decision to take down the cell there and then. Then she'd presumably woken up here, wherever here was. It looked somewhat like a hospital room, if the tubes in her arm and the off-white colouring of the ceiling were any indication. She tried to move her arm and received a jolt of pain for her troubles. _Guess that's why I'm here, _thought Sarah, as she dimly recalled a faceless agent lifting his gun and putting a bullet into her shoulder.

Sarah could feel another presence in the room with her, so she tried to lift her head to identify the source of it. What she saw devastated her, it was plainly Bryce and it looked like he hadn't slept for days. _Oh no, _thought Sarah, _it wasn't a dream, they really did take me away from Chuck_. The pain she had desperately tried to suppress since that day two months ago welled up within her and spilled over into tears that streaked down her face as she relived the worst day of her life. Her soft whimpers alerted Bryce to the fact that she was indeed awake, and he didn't have to guess what was causing the outpouring of emotion. _Should I comfort her? _He thought, the threats still weighing heavily on his mind. _The hell with it, I'll take my chances_.

When Bryce leant over to her and flung an arm around her, she lifted her uninjured arm and gripped him tightly to her, as she shook with the tears that didn't look like stopping. It helped; she could at least pretend it was Chuck she was holding like this if she shut her eyes. Just as the tears looked like abating, a nurse who appeared to have noticed Sarah was awake stepped into her room, and pulled Bryce away from her, telling her that she should try to sleep. She heard the nurse say something which made her blood run cold, and it didn't get any better when she asked the nurse to repeat it.

"I said that even though you've been in a coma for two weeks, your body doesn't think it has been sleeping for that time, so it would really be best for you to get some sleep."

_Two weeks? How the hell was I in a coma for two weeks? Wait, I was meant to call Chuck after the mission! Oh no, I told him if he went two months without hearing from me to assume the worst, and now it's been a month and a half. What is this doing to him?_

She resolved to talk to Chuck as soon as she went to sleep; it wouldn't do for her sleep deprived state to reveal something she shouldn't have, so she reluctantly fell into a grateful sleep and dreamed of brown curls and goofy smiles.

-----------------------

When Sarah awoke this time it didn't evoke as strong a reaction as last time, although she had accepted she was going to be away from Chuck for some considerable time, she didn't think she could go another minute without hearing his voice. Of course, she had to get her phone off Bryce first, so she decided to enact a small measure of revenge for what he had done to Chuck and woke him with a kick to the face. It wasn't as strong as she had hoped, two weeks in bed will do some damage to muscle mass, but it did its job.

"Huh? Whazzgoingon?" said Bryce

"I need something I had in my jeans before we left the hotel." replied Sarah

"What's that?" asked Bryce somewhat more coherently

"I need my cell phone, I have to call someone."

"I don't think you're allowed to use cell phones in here Sarah."

"Distract the nurses or something, this is an important call."

"Who would you be calling that's that imp..." he trailed off as the realization hit him much like Sarah's foot had seconds earlier, "You're calling Chuck aren't you?"

"And if I am? What are you going to do?"

"As of now, nothing. But if you get distracted on a mission because you're thinking of him I will tell the Director. I won't say anything now because I know how much it'll hurt Chuck if you stop calling him, and it will probably be better for my safety if I don't cut off the only thing that is keeping you sane."

"Thank you, Bryce. Now if you wouldn't mind I'd like to stop Chuck freaking out as much as possible, so could you please get my phone for me?"

"I'll be about half an hour, and after you've talked to him we'll talk about the last mission. Tell Chuck I said 'hi'."

The next 30 minutes were agony for Sarah, each second felt like an hour and it was all she could do to stay in bed and not hunt Bryce down for taking so long. When he did get back she gave him a quick smile as he left her in private before she hurried to dial Chuck's number. Sarah looked up at the clock: 6 AM. That meant it was around 3 AM in Los Angeles. Something told her Chuck wouldn't mind being woken up for this however. She put the phone to her ear and waited to hear the only voice she wanted to hear for the rest of her life.

-----------------------

Chuck had spent most of the two weeks since Sarah had missed her call flitting between depression and anxiety. Depression because this was the longest he had gone without talking to Sarah since he had met her and he was pretty sure the promise of a phone call from her was the only thing keeping him going. The anxiety came from every time he waited up for a phone call that hitherto hadn't come. He kept wondering whether she had simply forgotten about him, but when he remembered Sarah gripping onto him on that last morning he knew he could dismiss that thought, which left an altogether more horrifying thought that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't shake. Maybe the reason Sarah hadn't called was because she had tried one dangerous mission too many and paid the price this time. He still held onto a faint hope but only because the two months hadn't yet elapsed, but every night he spent staring at his phone, praying it would ring, was another night closer to him being forced to accept the truth. Tonight however his prayers were answered; just as he was prepared to give up and spend another night dreaming of what might have been he heard a vibration coming from his night stand. He refused to get his hopes up; he had been fooled five nights before when Casey had called to ask him just why he had been staying up until around 4 AM each night. This time it wasn't Casey, and it was the angelic voice he'd wanted to hear since a month and a half ago.

"Chuck? It's Sarah. I'm sorry I didn't call you on time, but I've kinda been in a coma for the past two weeks."

Chuck's eyes widened as Sarah spoke, the smile that had taken over his face at the sound of her voice replaced by a look of concern.

"You were what?!"

"In a coma Chuck, now calm down before you tip Casey off"

"Sorry, that was a little unexpected, I suppose that was a good reason not to call though. It was hard not talking to you for the past month and a half, you're really helping me get through Sarah being gone."

"I know Chuck, the month was hard for me too, I was going to call right after the mission but I got a little sidetracked."

"I guess you could say that, what happened?"

"I got shot by a Fulcrum agent basically."

"Really? Who?"

"I don't want you to flash on him, it might alert Casey, or at least he'll ask you what the flash was about."

"Give me a minute"

"Why, what're you going to do?"

"----"

"Dammit Chuck, answer me!"

"Sorry about that, just had to take care of an insect that was pissing me off"

"What, the bugs? What did you do to them?"

"Well I was at the Buy More today, and this guy comes in with a camera, tells me it's broken right?"

"Where the hell are you going with this Chuck?"

"Well I told him that he'd only managed to turn it off, it took about 5 minutes to explain it to him clearly enough though" _Come on Sarah, read between the lines, this will be easier if I don't have to explain again_

"Wait, did you just tell me you turned off the cameras? Impressive."

"Thanks, and yeah it was an easy fix. So what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"The code name is 'Yokaputo', Chuck. He escaped after he shot me."

"Really? Small world I guess, I met him a couple of weeks back. Wait, where was your ex in all this?"

"He'd gone to find some help, we were infiltrating an NSA facility to get in Fulcrum's good books so we could take them down, but the mission could have compromised your cover, so I did the takedown then"

"Nice, good to know you're still looking out for your boyfriend."

"Always have, always will, Chuck. I hope you still know how much I love you."

"Me too, it's helping me get through some difficult times."

"Oh, before I forget, Bryce told me to tell you that he says 'hi'."

"Tell him that back from me would you?"

"Of course, Chuck. He's still terrified of me by the way, it's been fun."

Chuck could hear her starting to giggle over the phone and wondered just how much morphine she was on. Sarah Walker did not giggle.

"Did you just giggle?"

"Err, no?"

"Yeah, right."

"Okay fine, I giggled. You happy now?"

"Extremely,"

"You realize I could kick your ass even while high from morphine and with one arm in a sling?"

"I don't doubt it, that's why I'm saying this while you're in some random country I've never heard of."

"What, America?"

"You serious?"

"Of course I am, when do I ever joke?"

"Good point,"

"I should probably tell you now, I'm keeping count of every time you make fun of me, and you will pay for it when I come home."

"Looking forward to it, any word on when?"

"Not yet Chuck, unless you want me to try and get shot again so I have to retire."

"I wouldn't go that far, yet."

"Another few months and I might be considering it Chuck."

"And on that happy note, I should probably get some sleep. I stayed up all night waiting for you to call."

"You didn't have to do that, Chuck."

"Oh I did."

"Fine. I love you."

"Me too, call me as soon as you can."

"I will, now get some rest."

"Bye,"

"Night Chuck,"

-----------------------

Casey was just settling in for another night of watching an increasingly depressed asset, who seemed to be lying on his side staring at his phone again. He wasn't that desperate for that stupid high school friend to call was he? Maybe he was, thought Casey, Bartowski's lady feelings seemed to extend to everyone he'd ever met. Casey had no doubt that this was something that happened often before Larkin's email that started everything. He'd called him once a few days ago to mess with his head a little. When you're forced to listen to Bartowski and his idiot bearded friend talking about nothing for hours you become entitled to a small amount of revenge, Casey had reasoned, not that he needed a reason to mess with Bartowski.

Tonight the moron seemed to get the phone call he had been waiting for if the way he smiled that ridiculous smile was any way to tell, but Casey had to laugh at the way it disappeared almost as instantaneously. Must be bad news, he thought, accompanied by an audible grunt which the idiot had probably numbered. One day he swore he would cause some damage to that kid, if only to get him back for the torture he had put him through on the surveillance.

That was odd; the camera focused on Chuck's bed seemed to flicker momentarily before going to static. He flicked it off and back on again, but there was still static. The audio still worked and it sounded like Bartowski hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, still yabbering on about something that had happened at the Buy More. If he had been paying closer attention he would have noticed how close to home Chuck's side of the conversation was to what had just happened, but Casey was too focused on getting the video feed back.

He got the feed up and running again, and his asset was still talking on his bed. _Wait, who did he meet a couple of weeks back?_ Casey thought, and made a mental note to go through the background checks to find out who the asset had come into contact with recently and had since left the country.

The rest of the conversation didn't seem to warrant too much attention, but Casey was intrigued by how much easier Chuck slept after the phone call compared with previous nights.

_This might warrant further investigation_, thought Casey.


	7. Devastations

**A/N: I reckon this is probably the penultimate chapter of this story and I apologise now for the ending. Thanks to Yokaputo for the beta and to zipfe for the help with the German part at the end, I was pretty close but any improvement is good improvement.  
**

**-------------------**

Casey's investigation wasn't going entirely as he had planned, Chuck was still in a cycle of depression followed by a couple of days of becoming tolerable after his supposed high school friend called, but he quickly sank back into depression as the month went on. While being suspicious, it wasn't enough for Casey to go to the General with, and the only way he could prove anything was to bug Chuck's phone, which was easier said than done when the phone was never more than three feet away from its nerdy owner. It wouldn't have been too bad if Chuck was actually cooperating with Casey and Forrest, but the few flashes he did have were rarely complete Intel reports and more than once Casey had had to save Forrest's ass when Chuck failed to warn her of approaching enemies. Casey had a sneaking suspicion that this uncooperativeness was part of a ploy to get Sarah reassigned back to Team Chuck (Team Bartasey had been mothballed after Casey threatened to put Chuck's head through the wall). Something had to give pretty soon, thought Casey, otherwise the idiot's going to get us all killed.

At the Orange Orange, Casey was going over the surveillance of previous phone calls Chuck had received, trying to look out for a slip which might give him an idea of who was calling. The back story checked out, he had had the NSA look into this 'Zoe Taylor' and she had indeed recently been transferred abroad by her company, but he couldn't find anybody Chuck had come into contact with that had also left the country. Casey had called Chuck on that, but he gave some lame-ass excuse about it being a customer. It didn't make complete sense but Casey didn't see the point in pushing it further as it might get back to whoever was in contact with his asset. It damn sure wasn't Taylor, that he did know, but until he could be sure he wasn't prepared to take it to the General. He knew she'd just order him to find something concrete to go on, so he'd wait until he had that before bothering such a busy person.

Just as Forrest walked down from the store front the huge screen at the front of the main Castle area flickered to life, and Casey hit pause on the surveillance footage and made his way to the front of the table where he waited at attention until the General came onto the screen.

"Major Casey, Agent Forrest" said the General by way of greeting.

"Good morning ma'am" answered the two agents.

"Now, onto business," began the General, "I am getting reports from the two of you of an increased level of uncooperativeness from the Intersect, would you explain the extent of these?"

"The asset is still refusing to enter the Orange Orange ma'am" said Forrest, "he appears to have some issues with depression if he enters the store."

"Right, is there any way you can think of to alleviate this, it is becoming a large issue which may compromise your covers if we must continue to use the Castle entrances within the Buy More and I would prefer for a secret base to remain, well, secret."

"The only way I can think of to improve the asset's mental state would be to reassign Agent Walker to the team, ma'am." Said Casey, "I believe I have made my feelings clear that this would be my preferred route of action to take in the past on this matter ma'am. Agent Walker's feelings towards the asset may have clouded her judgement towards certain matters concerning him, but she was an effective protector and the best partner I've ever had the pleasure to work with."

"You may have made your feelings clear on this matter, but so have I, Major. Agent Walker will not work with Team Intersect again while I am still the leader of this project, she is too emotionally involved."

"Well then we can expect an asset with decreased effectiveness ma'am. His flashes have become more and more incomplete as time has gone on. It is my opinion that he is withholding information he deems to be 'irrelevant' or not completely vital to the success of the mission."

"Why hasn't this been made clear in your earlier reports, Major?"

"I wasn't certain of my suspicions ma'am, and I wanted some concrete evidence instead of opinion before I came to you with it."

"So why share this now?"

"The effectiveness of the team has to be of the highest priority, so I felt the time was right to share my suspicions with you."

"Keep in mind that you should report any suspicions you may have to me immediately, Major."

"Yes ma'am."

"Now, Agent Forrest, what is your opinion on the asset's effectiveness in the field?"

"I don't think he trusts me yet ma'am, Major Casey has had to intervene on numerous occasions to prevent an enemy attacking me."

"Did we train you for nothing, Forrest? You are a field agent, are you not? You should be used to solo operations without surveillance back up. If you aren't up to the job then I'm sure there are some rookies currently undergoing training that could replace you and do a better job. Consider this your only warning, Forrest. Shape up or report back to Fort Meade for a desk job. Your choice."

"Sorry ma'am, I will enlist the aid of Major Casey to help me improve my field skills, this cover lifestyle is not very conducive to maintaining key espionage skills."

Casey had turned very red and his stance got even more stoic at Forrest's comments, which the General seemed to pick up on.

"Problem, Major?"

"No, no problem ma'am."

"Good, I have made a decision on how to fix the problem with the asset. Find him and bring him to Castle as soon as possible, I have some matters to discuss with Agent Forrest in private while you do so."

"Yes ma'am, roger that." Said Casey as he left Castle and headed over to the Buy More.

**-------------------**

Chuck was lost in thought as he sat at the Nerd Herd desk. Sarah had called a couple of weeks ago to tell him that she was going undercover in Germany and that it would probably be a few months before she could call him again. She had told him that if he really needed to hear her voice he could call but if she answered in German he had to hang up straight away and wait for her to call him. Chuck could handle that certainly, he'd gone six months and had only spoken to her 6 times in that time, so just the fact that he could call her was a huge boost to his happiness. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice Casey had been standing in front of him for at least a minute. Finally Casey's very low patience threshold snapped.

"Bartowski!"

No answer.

"Hey! Dumbass!"

Still no answer.

"Dammit Bartowski!" followed by a slap to the side of the head finally got his asset's attention.

"Oh, hey Casey, didn't see you there."

"No kidding, Bartowski, it's not like I shouted your name and had to hit you to get your attention."

"And?"

"As much as I'd like to continue this cute little moment, Beckman wants to see you."

"I thought I made myself clear, I'm not going down to Castle."

"There you go acting like you have a choice again, do I have to tranq you?"

"Listen, just because I go on missions because I don't like my tranquilised dreams, doesn't mean that can be your go to threat."

"Shut up, you're coming with me."

"Make me."

"What are you, six?"

"So's your face."

"What? Forget it, I wanted it to be a surprise but since you don't care..."

"What's a surprise?"

"Walker's back."

"Really?"

Without waiting for an answer Chuck took off towards the Orange Orange faster than Casey even thought possible, and was through the freezer door before Casey had even entered the store.

"Damn, I'm getting too old for this" muttered Casey.

"Casey, you bastard!" came the shout from the freezer. Evidently Chuck had figured out the lack of a certain blonde CIA agent in Castle.

"It got you down here didn't it? Now shut up and go talk to Beckman."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Jesus, Bartowski, if I have to carry you down there I will, now go!"

"Fine, fine, I'm going."

Chuck took his usual place next to the armoury as he stood in front of the screen and waited for Beckman to finish whatever paperwork she had to do. She looked up at the screen and seemed to notice Chuck standing there looking slightly apprehensive, while Casey and Forrest stood with emotionless faces.

"Mr. Bartowski, let me tell you where I'm coming from here. You are the most important intelligence asset in the country, that's why we've assigned two of our best agents as your handlers, but if you aren't supplying the Intel we need, the Intersect goes to waste somewhat, so I'm going to give you one chance to explain what it'll take for you to cooperate fully with us once more, or we will have no other option than to remove you and place you in protective custody."

"Well, General, I think you know what I want."

"Enlighten us, Mr. Bartowski."

"Put simply, Sarah. She's the only handler I could ever completely trust. Don't look so hurt Casey, I trust you, but there's no way I can completely trust someone who tried to kill me."

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"I didn't, but it was a good guess that you would be ordered to terminate me once the new Intersect was online. Thanks for confirming it though, really appreciate it."

"Damn you, you devious little runt."

"Did you or did you not just trick me into coming down here by saying Sarah was here?"

"Boys, stop this bickering before I order Forrest to terminate both of you," said Beckman.

"Now, Mr. Bartowski, are you saying that the only way we can get you to cooperate is for Agent Walker to rejoin Team Intersect?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, General."

"Alright then, I will make the necessary arrangements for Agent Walker's transfer back to Los Angeles, but I will give her the choice whether or not to do so, okay?"

A look of disbelief crossed Chuck's face as he heard the General's words, replaced by the widest he'd smiled since Sarah's departure six months beforehand.

"Really? And we can pursue a real relationship?"

"We'll see, Bartowski. It will be at least a 3 month probationary period, but after that I see no reason why we shouldn't allow you to, um, explore your feelings, should Agent Walker prove she can protect you."

"Thank you General, when will I know of her decision?"

"Agent Walker is in deep cover, it may be around a week before we can make contact, you are dismissed Bartowski."

"Thank you so much," said Chuck as he practically skipped out of Castle.

"General? Permission to speak freely?" asked Casey

"Granted," answered the General.

"Why the change of heart from about an hour ago when you refused to reassign Walker?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you Major, but this is part of a plan we have used before with great success. If there's nothing else... Dismissed."

As the screen again went dark, Casey and Forrest shared a confused look as they wondered just what the plan was and how it would affect the asset. Something about the tone of General Beckman's voice suggested it wouldn't be a happy ending.

**-------------------**

Chuck decided to call Sarah as he headed home, he couldn't wait to tell her the news and wanted to hear her voice as he told her she could come home. He just had to hope that she didn't answer in German. The phone rang and finally someone picked up.

"Hallo?"

_Crap, was that German or not?_

"Hi...is that Zoe?"

"Not a good time Chuck!"

Now that she mentioned it he could hear bullets whizzing around, and he also heard a shout from Bryce in the background.

"Sarah, now is not the time for you to answer your phone! Do you not notice the fact that there are people shooting at us?"

"Damn it Bryce, it's Chuck! I have to answer!"

"Uhh, can I call you back Chuck? We have some bad guys to shoot."

"Not a problem, I'll be waiting."

"Love you Chuck" said Sarah as she ended the call.

_Well that could have gone better_, thought Chuck.

**-------------------**

Chuck decided to get some sleep while he waited for Sarah to call him back, but lying in the dark didn't exactly help him relax. He was sure he'd heard bullets in the background, what if one of them had hit Sarah? He didn't think he could forgive himself if his call had resulted in Sarah being hurt. A ringing noise interrupted his silent freak-out session. Chuck scrabbled to pick it up and almost dropped it in his haste, but eventually managed to get it to his ear.

"Hello"

"Chuck, I'm sorry about earlier but it really wasn't a good time. How did you get my number anyway?"

"Err, I used callback" said Chuck, relief washing over his body as he heard Sarah.

"Oh...right. What did you want to talk about anyway?"

"Well, I spoke to Sarah's boss and managed to persuade them to transfer her back to LA"

"What? Chuck that's brilliant! How did you do it?"

Chuck smiled broadly at how happy Sarah seemed, he never thought that'd happen again, or at least for a long while.

"I honestly don't know, I've been trying for a while but she just agreed when I asked this time, maybe I just annoyed them enough."

"That is a skill of yours Chuck" chuckled Sarah, "When did Beckman say she'd contact me?"

"I dunno, she said around a week, Sarah's apparently difficult to get hold of."

"Well I should be, it wouldn't do if just _anyone_ could call."

"Yeah I suppose so, it's good to hear you're going back to see your boyfriend too. If he's anything like me he won't be able to wait to see you."

"Oh he's a lot like you, Chuck."

"Really? Never would've guessed," said Chuck sarcastically."

"Oh shut up Chuck!" laughed Sarah, "now I really need to get some beauty sleep."

"Like you need it."

"Thanks, it's nice to hear that, I can't wait to see you again."

"Me either, see ya."

"Bye Chuck."

Both Chuck and Sarah hung up with broad smiles, and Sarah settled down to dream of the phone call which would change her life.

**-------------------**

The call finally came around a week later, while Sarah was about to finish up a meeting in her undercover job within a law firm in Dresden. The firm had connections to a Neo-Nazi group that were plotting to assassinate the President, and Sarah was feeling pretty confident that they had enough information to arrest the major players without drawing suspicion to her. She was about to end the meeting when her phone rang.

„Ja?"

„Hallo, darf ich mit Frau Sabine Holly sprechen bitte?" said General Beckman, fulfilling the protocol for calls to undercover agents in a foreign country. A call at the wrong time from someone speaking English could cause all sorts of cover issues, so superiors had to speak in the appropriate language. If the operative answered in English, so could the superior, but if not then the line was unsecured and they should continue to talk in the foreign language. In this case, German.

„Ja, ich bin sie," said Sarah.

„Hallo, Fraulein Holly. Ich habe mit ihrem letzten Chef gesprochen, und habe eine wichtige Nachricht für sie."

„Ja, und?"

„Es tut mir leid, Frau Holly, aber Chuck Bartowski ist vor zwei Tage wegen Fulcrum gefangen genommen worden und wir müssen davon ausgehen, dass er Tod ist. Es tut mir sehr leid um Ihren Verlust".

The people still within the meeting room watched in shock as Sarah collapsed to the ground.

**-------------------**

**A/N: Below is a translation of the conversation between Beckman and Sarah.**

"_Yes?"_

"_Hello, may I speak with Miss Sabine Holly please?"_

"_Yes, that's me."_

"_Hello, Miss Holly. I have spoken with your last boss, and I have some important news for you."_

"_Yes, and?"_

"_I'm sorry, but Chuck Bartowski was captured two days ago by Fulcrum and we have to assume he is dead. I'm sorry for your loss."_

**Really sorry for that ending. *Evil Laugh***


	8. Conclusions

**A/N: Well here it is, the last chapter of Chuck Vs The Reassignment. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this, my first story in Fan Fiction and a special thanks to Yokaputo and Sm93starbuck, who have both been very helpful with betas of each chapter, and thanks to Wepdiggy, who added in his beta for this chapter. Sorry about the delay after that ending to the last chapter but there was the issue of finishing my exams and celebrating to contend with. Without further ado, here it is:**

**---------------**

"_Tod?_" gasped Sarah, barely managing to maintain cover, "What... how?"

"_Wir wissen nicht_," said Beckman, "but what we do know is that it was likely to be fast."

"Can I see him?"

"We haven't recovered a body, and his sister is yet to be informed. She was told that he had a Buy More training program that would last a couple of weeks in order to buy us some time to find him, but Fulcrum chatter we have intercepted leads us to believe he was killed by a Fulcrum cell. So to answer your question, it would be too difficult on the cover for you to return to Los Angeles, and I cannot allow it. I'm sorry Walker."

_Well that doesn't add up,_ thought Sarah,_ why would they have kept up the cover story after they thought Chuck was dead?_

Sarah shakily got to her feet after disconnecting the call. Ignoring the concerned looks from her cover co-workers, she walked unsteadily out of the room where she had received that dreadful call. Her heart felt like it had been torn in two when she heard Beckman say the words she had dreaded since she had left Chuck all those months ago. She had to at least find out if it was true. She didn't exactly trust Beckman; when someone takes you away from the person you love you tend to form a grudge. As she entered the hotel room that she was using as a base of operations for this mission she made a call to Bryce. He was working within the accounting department of the same firm she was in, in order to widen the net and play the averages to try and wrap the mission up faster. Luckily Bryce was staying in a hotel not far from hers, so he arrived fairly quickly.

"What was it you wanted Sarah?" he asked.

"I have to leave, tonight if possible," answered Sarah.

"We're in the middle of a mission, in case you didn't realise. Sure, Dresden has some decent architecture but it's not really my choice for a holiday. Not enough beaches to be honest. So what is so important that you need to leave now?"

"Bryce. It's Chuck."

"It always is with you. What's the matter? Calls not enough for you?"

As he said these words he realised it might not have been the most opportune time to take out the frustrations he had kept buried since Sarah had returned, if the way her face fell and her eyes started to gleam with tears was any indication.

"No, Beckman called while I was in a meeting. She said... she told me that Fulcrum had captured Chuck, and that...that..." she couldn't finish, but the way she choked up left no doubt in Bryce's mind of what had happened to Chuck. Only one thing could cause Sarah to react like that, and judging by the way she was curled up in the foetal position on her hotel room bed, it had happened.

"Oh god, Sarah I'm so sorry."

"Save it Bryce, I need to go to LA to see if it's true. Please cover for me with Beckman until I can get back."

"Are you sure you're coming back?"

"I don't know Bryce, but as Beckman ordered me not to go to LA I reckon something's up and not everything is exactly as she said."

"Sarah, you can't delude yourself into thinking he might still be alive. You'll only make things worse for yourself once you come to accept it for the truth that it is."

"Bryce, I have to know. And if this means that I go to LA despite Beckman's orders, then so be it. I lost all respect for her when she removed me from being Ch..._his_... handler."

"Sarah, think about what you're doing," Bryce almost pleaded, "if Beckman finds out your career is over."

"Do you really think I care about my career anymore? I was only taking on Fulcrum because I thought it would make Chuck safer. Now he's gone there isn't any point. Please Bryce, promise you'll cover with Beckman."

"Fine, Sarah. But please be careful. I care too much for you to let you throw your career away."

"Thank you, Bryce. Do you think you can handle this mission by yourself?"

"Of course. We've nearly wrapped it up anyway. Once you find whatever it is you need in LA contact me in the usual way so we can meet up."

"I will, and I won't forget this Bryce. I just hope that Beckman was lying; I don't know what I'd do without knowing that Chuck was safe."

**---------------**

A week had passed since Beckman had agreed to reassign Sarah back to Team Bartowski, and Chuck couldn't wait for the moment that Beckman would confirm she was coming back to what even she considered to be home. He had been a little surprised at how easily Beckman had caved, considering he'd spent nearly the entire time since Sarah had left trying to convince either her, or trying to persuade Casey to try to convince her. He wasn't too suspicious because of the fact that he was more or less blinded by the possibility Sarah was coming back, and he didn't want to do anything to jeopardise that.

Even the Buy More seemed to be a better place now, whether it was all in his head or not, everything seemed to be running better since Beckman had agreed to reassign Sarah. Jeff was turning up for work more or less sober, and he'd gone four days without walking in on Anna and Morgan, which he was pretty sure was a record. He was surprised to find himself finding Forrest's almost daily briefings tolerable, and was entering Castle without the need of a threat from Casey. Normally he wouldn't have thought much of a threat from Casey as he got them so often, but Casey had seemed so on edge recently he decided that it was probably better not to poke that particular tiger. Right on cue, the object of his most recent musings walked up and banged on the Nerd Herd desk.

"Bartowski, briefing in Castle. Now!"

"No need to shout Casey, I'm right here."

"Well normally it takes a while for sound to penetrate that thick skull of yours, time we really don't have, so get moving."

"Ah, insults. How I have missed thee."

"Shut up and go, Bartowski."

"Fine, fine, I'm going."

**---------------**

Chuck entered Castle with trepidation. It had been around a week, and that was how long Beckman had said it should take to contact Sarah. Of course, he already had confirmation that she was coming back from the angel herself, but it wouldn't be official till the pint-sized General announced it. Might as well get straight to it, he thought.

"Mr. Bartowski," said General Beckman, "as you may have guessed, this briefing is to tell you that we have made contact with Agent Walker."

Chuck's heart rate nearly went through the roof as he waited for Beckman to continue.

"And?" said Casey. He was looking forward to getting his old partner back too. He was finding Forrest difficult to work with on missions, they were just too similar, and he was getting a bit tired of having to save her on every other mission.

"Bartowski, I'm sorry to have to say this but Agent Walker rejected the offer of reassignment. She told me that she preferred to work with Agent Larkin for the foreseeable future." That last shot was cruel, but Chuck had put the General through a certain amount of hell over the past few months. Luckily he was still keeping up a moderate success rate, but moderate wasn't good enough in the long term.

Chuck felt like his heart had been torn from his chest and repeatedly stamped on. He'd been so sure she'd come back to him, she'd sounded so happy when he told her. Had he misinterpreted it somehow? Did she really want to stay with Bryce of all people? He was finding it hard to breathe, and he was surprised when Casey came over to him and placed a fatherly hand on his shoulder.

Forrest had left as soon as Beckman ended the conference, a self-satisfied smirk on her face at remaining on one of the most coveted teams in the US intelligence circuit. A couple more years and she could have any assignment she wanted, once she or Casey received the inevitable order to end the asset's pathetic existence.

Casey on the other hand was feeling pretty bad about the whole thing. He'd known of Beckman's plan to break Bartowski in the hope that he would cooperate more, just because he felt as though he had no other purpose. He had to admit the idea was a good one in terms of asset productivity, but Casey had come to view Bartowski as the little brother he'd never had, and he was dreading how he'd react to this latest blow.

Chuck was already feeling like a hollow shell. Earlier today he couldn't wait for this briefing, for the moment Sarah walked through the doors of Castle or the Buy More. He'd dreamt of that moment since she'd left, but all of those dreams were dashed as soon as Beckman had come online and told him the worst thing he'd heard since that time in Professor Fleming's office all those years ago. He needed some privacy to clear his head, he just couldn't think while he knew he was being watched. Praying Casey would understand he took off his watch and decided to head home so he could pick up some stuff to spend a long time at the beach, he thought he'd probably need it.

As he left the Castle Forrest noticed the watch sitting on the centre table of the base. Picking it up she headed over to where Casey was messing around with a computer set up.

"You do realise the asset just left without his GPS tracking watch don't you."

"Yeah, I've noticed that whenever he goes to the beach he likes to think he isn't being watched. He usually just takes it off and leaves it in his car so we know he's at the beach, but I guess he decided to leave it here this time."

"And this doesn't concern you?"

"Not really, I decided to plant an SM-93 GPS listening device on his phone last week. The asset has been receiving a couple of interesting phone calls that I'd like to hear the other end of. He never turns his phone off so we'll have real time tracking on him, and if he gets any calls we'll know if he's in danger from them."

"Why didn't you mention this before?"

"It didn't seem important, you don't usually care too much about the surveillance I have on the asset. Pretty strange for an NSA Agent not to care about surveillance, but there you go."

"Whatever, just keep me informed if anything abnormal happens."

**---------------**

Chuck was still wandering aimlessly back towards his apartment, his head was swimming from the bombshell Beckman had dropped, and it always came back to one question. Why? That was one question he was going to try to get an answer to. He searched for the number he'd only dialled once, and that was to tell Sarah she was coming back. Now it was to find out why she wasn't coming back.

As the phone rang he thought he could hear what sounded vaguely like a ringtone coming from the courtyard in front of his apartment. Probably coincidence, he thought, just as Sarah answered.

"Hello?"

She sounded tired, as if she hadn't slept for days.

"Sarah? Why did you do it? You seemed so happy when I told you."

"CHUCK! Oh my God, they told me you were dead."

_Wait that had an echo._

"What? They told me you refused the reassignment."

He heard sobbing noises coming over the phone, but they didn't seem to get quieter as he took the phone from his ear.

_Well that's weird, it almost sounds as though there's someone crying in the courtyard too._

"Sarah, where exactly are you?"

The sobs abruptly stopped, as did the noises coming from the courtyard.

"Closer than you might think, Chuck."

"So am I," said Chuck as he ran into the courtyard to see the sight he'd hoped for all those long months.

Sarah.

She was standing there, eyes red from tears still running down her face, and yet she was still more beautiful than anything else he'd seen before. Before he knew what was happening they were together again at last, bodies pressed together in an attempt to close the distance that had been forcibly put between them by the government.

"How? How are you here?" asked Chuck.

"Beckman said you'd been captured by Fulcrum, and that you were dead. I was on a mission at the time, but I had to come back and see if it was true."

It wasn't true. Thank God. Everything Sarah had hoped for since she'd gotten the call from Beckman was standing in front of her. She was still trying to figure out what was going on and why Beckman had told her that Chuck was dead when Chuck asked a question that had been in the back of her mind for a while.

"But the mission, won't it cause problems if you don't complete it?"

"Bryce agreed to wrap it up for me." _At least, I hope he will._

"Are you going back to him?"

"No way, I thought I'd lost you, I'm never letting you go again."

"That's the best thing I've heard in ages."

With that he kissed her, but there was something else on his mind which stopped him from taking it further.

"Why did Beckman do this?"

"I'm not sure, but I think she's following a last resort protocol in which the asset's spirit is broken in order to ensure future cooperation. If that fails then the only option is compulsory sequestering. God Chuck, they were going to put you in a bunker!" exclaimed Sarah as the pieces slotted into place.

"Even now, now that you're back?"

"We're on camera; Casey probably already knows I'm here. If he's not in on the plan, although he probably is, then he'll tell Beckman and you'll be put in a bunker anyway."

**---------------**

Casey did know, he had noticed something he hadn't ever expected to see again pull up in the Bartowski's driveway; Sarah's Porsche. He'd also picked up a phone conversation from the SM-93 he'd planted, and one part of it seemed to jump out at him:

"_You seemed so happy when I told you_"

When had Bartowski told her?

"_Well, I spoke to Sarah's boss and managed to persuade them to transfer her back to LA"_

Devious little bastard, he was in contact with her the whole time. Crap, now he had to explain to Beckman why he hadn't mentioned his suspicions even after she had ordered him too. He hated it when his gut was right.

"_We're on camera; Casey probably already knows I'm here. If he's not in on the plan, although he probably is, then he'll tell Beckman and you'll be put in a bunker anyway."_

God, Walker, don't do what I think you're gonna do.

**---------------**

"What are you going to do, Sarah?" asked Chuck

"I told you, I'm not losing you again. Beckman's going to take you away from everyone who you love if we stay."

"What does that mean?"

"Take off your watch," whispered Sarah as she pulled Chuck in for a hug.

"Err, my watch is in Castle."

"Oh. Either way, we have to run."

"What about Ellie? I can't leave without telling her something."

"We can't stay too long, but I think we have enough time for us to explain everything to Ellie. We'll leave her a note telling us where to meet us."

"What should I put?"

"Something only you and Ellie would know, you can't write it down or Casey'll find us before we have a chance."

"Isn't he listening in on this?"

"Crap."

"Do you have a jammer or something?"

"Yeah, I'll turn it on now. Maybe Beckman was onto something when she reassigned me, you do tend to distract me."

"Don't think like that, I wouldn't have made it anywhere near as long without you. Now is the jammer on?"

"It's on. Where should we leave the note?"

"She's working a shift at the hospital, so we can drop it off and then hideout until she gets off work and meets us."

"Right, but _nobody_ can see which car we take, otherwise they'll track us to the hospital and then tail Ellie to the meeting point. That puts my Porsche out, and obviously your Herder too."

"You're gonna give up your Porsche for me?"

"Fair trade I reckon."

**---------------**

As soon as the audio feed cut out from Casey's surveillance system he knew Walker was going to do what he'd hoped she wouldn't. He couldn't blame her, he'd do the same for Ilsa, but it was him that was going to take the flak on this one, and he wasn't looking forward to it. He was determined to give them as much time to get away as possible, it wouldn't be pretty if they were caught now. All of those plans went out of the window when Beckman decided to make an unscheduled conference call on the main Castle screen.

"Major Casey, how did the asset take the news?" she asked

"Well ma'am, he was pretty broken up about it, but once he found Walker in his courtyard he seemed a lot happier."

"WHAT!"

"It appears Walker didn't exactly believe you when you informed her of Bartowski's death."

"And Bartowski forgave her, even though she supposedly rejected reassignment?"

"Well he called her on the way back to the apartment complex and they more or less figured the ruse out."

"HE CALLED HER?!"

_This wasn't going to end well._

"Yes ma'am, I have had my suspicions that the asset and Walker were in contact, but this call verified them."

"You had suspicions and you didn't report them, again?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And what is your...suspicion...of what Walker will do now?"

"She seems to have figured out that Bartowski will be put in a bunker, so it is my opinion that she'll go off the grid with Bartowski."

"Well, if that should happen, and it probably will, you will be in charge of retrieval and termination of the asset, _Captain_ Casey."

_CAPTAIN? That little bastard got me demoted! No matter how much I may like him, he's gonna pay for that!_

"Yes ma'am" said Casey tersely, as Beckman ended the call.

_Your ass is mine, Bartowski!_

**---------------**

Chuck and Sarah used their "borrowed" car to get to the hospital as inconspicuously as possible, and Chuck went up to the E.R. with Sarah to deliver the note he had prepared on the drive over. He'd wanted for so long to be able to tell Ellie everything, but he didn't imagine it would be like this, just before he and Sarah left for good.

"Go on, Chuck. Just deliver the note. I'll be here waiting for you, I love you."

"I love you too, Sarah."

He left the note with the receptionist and then left with Sarah, praying that everything went to plan and Ellie would meet with them without a tail, while he and Sarah lay low for a few hours. He had a couple of ideas to pass the time, and he was sure Sarah had much the same ideas.

Ellie came down to the E.R. reception around 20 minutes after Chuck and Sarah had left. It wasn't unusual for a doctor to be called over by a receptionist, but it was certainly strange for the receptionist to pass her a hand-written note. With a slightly confused look on her face, she unfolded the note and began to read.

_Ellie,_

_Me and Sarah need to explain some stuff to you, meet us where Mom and Dad got married as soon as you can, it's _extremely_ important. Don't tell anyone about this, not even Awesome. You can't trust Casey, don't say that you saw us or that you even got this note, and we'll explain everything when you meet us._

_Your loving little brother,_

_Chuck_

**A/N: I do have a rough idea for a sequel in my head, but it may be a couple of weeks before I get going on properly planning it out. **

**Until then, thanks again for the reviews and I hope you enjoyed Chuck Vs The Reassignment.**

_**kroblues**_


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